Boat, a monumental 12-metre walk-in installation by Chinese artist Zhu Jin Shi will be exhibited for the first time in America as the centrepiece of 28 Chinese artists at the Rubbell Family Collection in Miami. On display from 4 December onwards, the exhibition will coincide with Art Basel in Miami Beach.
Described by the artist as a “symbolic journey,” the installation work is composed of bamboo, cotton and 8000 sheets of xuan (rice) paper. Multiple sheets of xuan paper walls block exterior world as the viewer moves through the tunnel. Xuan paper is considered to be the first material invented specifically for writing and painting, and is a medium deeply immersed in history and tradition.
Alongside Boat, Zhu will also showcase a series of his heavily impastoed oil paintings, which have gained him international recognition. His large scale works laden with a multitude of oil colours reflect both Western and Chinese abstraction, referencing the work of Wassily Kandinsky and the Abstract Expressionist movement.
Boat by Zhu Jinshi installed at Art 13, London – February 2013. Courtesy of the artist, Copyright Pearl Lam Galleries
by Louise Lui